The past few days have been interesting ones for fight fans excited about the rise of Central Asian fighters with a number of very good prospects being in action in a very short amount of time. Not only was there a lot but there was also some excellent performances by fighters from the "Stans" with those fighters all looking like they are wlel on their way to doing something special in the professional ranks.

The first of those was Uzbek prospect Shakhram Giyasov (4-0, 3), who took a massive step up in class to take on the tough Albert Mensah (31-7-1, 15) on Friday night.

Giyasov, a former amateur standout expected to go on on to great things, was taking on a guy who had fought all over the globe in a 16 year career and had never been stopped. He hadn't just fought around the globe but had shared the ring with the likes of Michael Katsidis, Denis Shafikov, Cesar Rene Cuenca and the then promising Ed Brown.

Despite Mensah's reputation as a tough guy Giyasov took the fight to him, had fun and was aggressive. In round 3, with the body shots taking their toll on Mensah the Ghanaian finally folded in his own corner where he took the 10 count to accept his first ever stoppage loss.

Giyasov is tipped for big things and to take on Mensah so early in his career was a a real statement of intent, the fact he stopped him made that statement even louder, even if the Uzbek did make one or two pretty glaring mistakes in the ring, including getting himself tangled in the ropes.

On Saturday it was the turn ​of Uzbek born Russian national Batyr Akhmedov (5-0, 4) who took a huge step up of his own to take on former WBA "interim" Lightweight champion Ismael Barroso (20-3-2, 19).

This was a dangerous bout for Akhmedov, who was taking on his first real puncher who had broken British hearts in 2015 when he stopped Kevin Mitchell. Although Akhmedov, who represented Turkey at the 2016 Olympics, had looked great in his first 4 bouts this was a whole lot different to facing the likes of Ricky Sismundo. In round 3 he really tasted the power of Barroso, being dropped in the final minute of the round. Despite the knock down Akhmedov managed to clear his head, use his movement and see out the storm before going on to stop Barroso later in the bout with a brutal body shot.

Although this is the second time Barroso has been stopped, also being taken out by Anthony Crolla, this was still a very impressive result and overall the performance showed a lot of maturity and positive traits from Akhmedov. Yes he was dropped, and hurt, but he recovered, he showed a fighters heart and he went on to stop his man. All positives. And even those questioning his chin have to respect that he was caught clean by a monstrous puncher.

There were several Central Asian fighters putting in notable performances on Sunday. One of those was Uzbek Shohjahon Ergashev (13-0, 12), who stopped Ugandan veteran Juma Waswa (10-3-1, 4).

Ergashev really had his break out performance earlier this year, when he stopped Sonny Fredrickson back in January but this was another good win for the Uzbek, who made Waswa retire in the corner between rounds 5 and 6. It certainly wasn't the show-man like performance that Ergashev had had against Fredrickson but it was an accomplished one for the fans in Moscow who gone and watched the contest. It was also another chance for fans to look at one of Uzbekistan's best prospects, who looks exciting, aggressive and powerful.

Sadly Waswa wasn't as good of an opponent as Mensah or Barroso, and didn't pose Ergashev any real trouble, but the Uzbek showed he could still put on a performance against a rather poor and frustrating opponent who appeared to be there to survive and not really win. The ambition from Waswa made it hard for Ergashev to shine, but he still did what he had to do to not only win but to also entertain the crowd.

Also on Sunday we had very impressive performances from Muhammadkhuja Yaqubov (12-0, 7), who took out Mexican Victor Alejandro Gonzalez (18-2, 9) with a brutal body shot inside the opening round and Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov (13-0, 10), who destroyed the upset minded Robinson Castellanos (24-14, 14) in 2 rounds with Castellanos being dropped 4 times.

​It's also worth noting that Uzbek Ravshanbek Umurzakov (5-0, 4) scored a big win over Eden Sonsona (36-9-2, 13) on Sunday, stopping Sonsona in the opening round. Sadly whilst it's a great result the performance wasn't really anything special with Sonsona going down after 58 seconds and taking the 10 count, robbing Umurzakov of any chance to shine.

Whilst we don't think any of the fighters mentioned here are ready for a world title fight, yet, all the Central Asian fighters who picked up a win took a huge step towards getting a shot at a world title, and all will be chasing gold in the very near future.

Thinking Out East

With this site being pretty successful so far we've decided to open up about our own views and start what could be considered effectively an editorial style opinion column dubbed "Thinking Out East" (T.O.E).

T.O.E is just a collection of our thoughts, rambles and general things related to boxing in the East.